Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the comparative effect of the standing charge for electricity on low income households compared to other households.

The standing charge remains capped under the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), which means that a household with typical energy use in Great Britain will pay, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill up till April 2023, when the EPG will be reviewed.

The energy regulator, Ofgem, recently reviewed the components of the standing charge to see if they could be reduced. Ofgem concluded that while some low consuming users, might benefit from change, some higher consuming users, including vulnerable users, would pay more. Retaining the current methodology would protect users with greater energy needs, such as disabled users and electric heating users.